Texas Executes Its 300th Inmate

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, March 19, 2003

An apologetic killer Thursday became the 300th inmate put to death in Texas since the state resumed the death penalty 20 years ago.

Keith Clay, 35, who gunned down a convenience store clerk during a 1994 robbery, prayed softly to himself as he was executed by injection. He was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m.

Clay asked for forgiveness from three members of his victim's family, who watched through a nearby window.

"I know you have suffered a great loss and I am truly, truly sorry," he told the family of Melathethil Tom Varughese.

Clay also asked God to "forgive me of every single solitary sin I have committed."

Turning to his mother, he said, "Let everyone know that I love them. This is not goodbye. I will see you later."

Cynthia Smith smiled and flashed two thumbs up to him.

Clay was the 11th inmate executed this year in Texas, which is on a pace to surpass the record 40 lethal injections it carried out in 2000. Another execution is scheduled for next week.

It took nearly 13 years for Texas to reach 100 executions, four years get to No. 200 and now just over three to reach the 300th.

The state accounts for more than one-third of the 838 executions in the United States since 1976, when the death penalty resumed under a Supreme Court ruling. Virginia is second with 87.

Clay was convicted of killing Varughese during a robbery in Baytown, near Houston. Varughese had come to the United States from India a year earlier.

Clay had said he was outside the store in a car when Varughese was killed, but a witness identified Clay as the gunman and evidence showed his gun was one of the two used in the shooting.

"I'm not happy to see someone put to death, but I know that the trial was a fair trial," said Marie Munier, who prosecuted Clay. "I think it's justice."

Prosecutors also linked Clay to the fatal shootings of three people, including two children, on Christmas Eve in 1993. He denied any role in the killings and was not tried, but a companion was sent to death row for the crime.

The Supreme Court refused to review Clay's case last week. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles refused to consider a clemency request because it was filed late.

Earlier this month Texas had slated another convicted killer to become its 300th inmate executed.

Delma Banks, who says he was wrongly convicted of a 1980 slaying, was granted a last-minute Supreme Court reprieve.